


Apex

by weakinteraction



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Aliens, Contamination, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-18 18:45:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8172020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weakinteraction/pseuds/weakinteraction
Summary: Hux and Phasma investigate when something goes wrong aboard a First Order research vessel.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leidolette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leidolette/gifts).



The _Finalizer_ transitioned back into real space smoothly, despite its immense size. Hux had expected nothing less; any pilot who couldn't accomplish the re-insertion perfectly would never have been promoted to a position on the flagship.

He spent a moment enjoying the sight of his bridge crew at their assigned tasks, cogs -- honed from childhood by his training and indoctrination methods -- in a perfectly oiled machine. He only began to worry when the comms officer hadn't reported back on contact with the _Implacable_ within the first half-minute of their arrival.

Instead, a few moments later Lieutenant Gorbo turned from the sensor ops station. "Sir," she said, "I'm not reading any other ships within a parsec of the rendezvous point."

Hux stared out at the starry expanse before them, the permutations of possible reasons and appropriate responses to them playing out in his mind like the midgame of a dejarik match.

"Could they have been delayed in departing from Mahairi IV?" Gorbo said when he hadn't responded for some time.

Hux had already considered that possibility and assigned it a very low probability. But it wouldn't hurt to check. He nodded to the comms officer as he walked towards the navigation station. "Contact the research station and find out." When he reached the pilot, he said, "Plot a search pattern to cover all the waypoints on the Implacable's possible routes."

"Yes, sir," the pilot acknowledged, setting to work immediately.

"Sir," Gorbo said nervously. When Hux turned to her, she quailed at his glare, but still said, "Aren't we supposed to be at the rendezvous with Lord Ren in twelve hours?"

"This is a priority matter," Hux said. He turned back to the comms officer. "Contact the esteemed Lord Ren and send our apologies for a slight delay. I'm sure he will take full advantage of the opportunity to ... meditate."

"Yes, sir," the comms officer said. A moment later, he added, "Message received from the research station. Implacable departed on schedule yesterday evening." Hux acknowledged him with a nod.

"Course laid in," said the pilot.

"Engage."

* * *

Six hours later, and more than a dozen hyperspace jumps -- even the _Finalizer_ 's engines were beginning to feel the strain if his chief engineer was to be believed -- they came upon the Implacable undamaged but floating listlessly in space, only two hyperspace jumps away from its departure point at Mahairi IV.

When they emerged from hyperspace, half the bridge crew gasped at the sight before them. Hux was inclined to be lenient with such ill discipline in the light of his own shock, and settled for issuing a verbal reprimand rather than putting them on indefinite garbage duty. It may have been an old Imperial model refitted as a research vessel, but to see a Star Destroyer, the symbol of power and order for so long in so many parts of the galaxy, so completely adrift like that felt wholly, unutterably _wrong_.

Hux's mind turned instantly to trying to calculate the probabilities of how and why it might have happened. If Dr Lykal's experimental subject had got out of control, perhaps ... But surely the crew would have been able to contain a single beast, however powerful? At worst, they could have evacuated entire decks of the ship. He ordered a scan for debris, in case just a course of action had been attempted -- there was none. All attempts to raise the ship on comms proved fruitless. There weren't even any non-standard signals, such as might be created by trapped crewmembers trying to signal their continued survival with jury-rigged equipment.

Had the _Implacable_ really been lost with all hands? It would almost have been better for it to have fallen victim to a sneak attack by the infernal Resistance.

Hux suppressed the urge to shudder and moved on to the next steps. It would be necessary to investigate; he summoned Captain Phasma and outlined to her the mixture of profiles he would require on the boarding team. He knew that she would already have troopers in mind who fit his requirements and worked well together.

"I shall be accompanying you personally," he added.

"General?"

"My orders are final," Hux said. If Dr Lykal's project had failed, he would have to account for it to Supreme Leader Snoke. But only if it had failed. If he got to the evidence first, he could discover whether or not that was the case. He could _determine_ whether or not that was the case, if necessary.

"Of course, General."

* * *

The small squad assembled in the docking bay looked exactly the same as any other, but Hux had reviewed their records on his way, and knew that Phasma had chosen well. They stood to attention, waiting to board the assault transport. Captain Phasma stood at the base of its loading ramp.

"Proceed," Hux said eventually, and watched with pleasure as they boarded in synchronised perfection. He would wait to brief them until they were under way, well away from the prying ears of any docking crew or radar technicians who might unfortunately fail to understand that loyalty to General Hux and loyalty to the First Order were inextricably synonymous.

The _Finalizer_ was falling away behind them in the screen on his console, the _Implacable_ gradually drawing closer, when he stood and turned to address them. "Stormtroopers of the First Order, today you are hunters. You will hone the skills of tracking and killing that will make you the heroes of the galaxy when we finally wipe the Resistance vermin from each and every one of their squalid hiding places!"

As one, the men raised their rifles and cheered. When they had finished, Hux continued, "I have reason to believe that the ship we are approaching has been attacked from within by a vicious predatory animal." Inspiration struck, and he improvised, "No doubt its placement aboard the vessel was some Resistance attempt to attack the First Order from within without exposing their spies to any danger of their own, exactly the sort of dishonourable stratagem that we should expect from such despicable cowardly lickspittles of the so-called New Republic." He breathed deeply for a moment, mastering his rage at his own invented enemy. "We must subdue the creature and retrieve the Implacable's cargo." There was no need to mention that they were one and the same. "You are all elite soldiers of the First Order. I have complete confidence in your ability to perform this mission."

The troopers gave another cheer.

He sat back down as the transport reached the point where, if the _Implacable_ had still been fully crewed, he would have liaised with its traffic control operatives. Instead, he had to send a complex sequence of override codes to disable the automated defences and temporarily lower the forcefield.

The landing was eerie, with none of the bustle of a normal docking bay, or the voices of traffic control in his ear.

Once they had disembarked, Phasma had the troopers form up into pairs to execute a search of the ship. "The creature we are looking for is large and extremely dangerous," Hux said. "It should be straightforward to distinguish it from any surviving crew members. And if you do find any of the latter, bring them to me." They could account personally for their failures, and if their accounts were likely to run counter to the narrative Hux wanted to construct, they would pay for it dearly. "Captain Phasma, you will accompany me."

"Would you not prefer to remain here at the transport?" Phasma asked.

"Are you accusing me of cowardice, Captain?"

"Not in the least, General."

"We will go the research levels." The men could find the creature; he needed to find Lykal's research, and retrieve or destroy it, depending on what light it could be cast in.

As they walked through the ship, they began to come upon corpses of crew members. But they were not mutilated as Hux had expected. Instead, they were covered in scars and encrustations. Had they fallen victim to some sort of plague? Mahairi IV was a major hub in this region, and had connections with worlds where the writ of the First Order -- including its highly effective, if ruthless approach to disease control -- did not yet run. If a plague was beginning to spread, major corrective actions might become necessary.

As they descended in the lift, Phasma spoke up. "May I ask a question, General?"

His initial instinct was to deny her permission; the more questions he answered, the more vulnerable he might be later. But Phasma had proven her worth to him time and again; he allowed her privileges that he would not dream of giving to any other stormtrooper, and she repaid him not only with absolutely loyalty but by being one of the only people around him who was not afraid of him. If she had a question, it was undoubtedly a good one. He still might not answer, but reflecting on it would be helpful even if he didn't share his thoughts. "Go ahead," he said.

"You referred to the possibility that the creature we are hunting is a kind of weapon," she said. There was no inflection to make the statement anything other than what it appeared on its face, but he knew that she was telling him that she guessed the truth; she had not mentioned the idea that it was a weapon wielded by the Resistance.

"What is your question, Captain?"

He could almost sense Phasma smiling behind the helmet. "A weapon-- That is, is it not the case that a weapon that cannot be aimed is of limited utility?"

 _And you yourself are a precision munition, of course,_ Hux thought to himself.

The mystery deepened when they reached the research level. The corpses seemed more numerous here: had the crew retreated here as the plague spread? Had Dr Lykal been working on a cure? Hux allowed himself to hope that the predator creature might still be in confinement. "In here," he said to Phasma, leading her to the holding area which had once been the star destroyer's brig. The forcefields were all down, the cells empty. Hux cursed silently. "Have any of the squads reported contact with the creature?" he asked.

"Negative, sir."

"And your own tracking device?"

"No signals nearby, sir."

"Very good." Hux straightened up. "I must inspect Dr Lykal's lab. You will wait here. Inform me the moment anything happens."

"Yes, sir."

Hux walked through the empty corridors, ensuring he did not startle when the lights flickered as the ship's systems, untended, began to become erratic. The odds of the creature being nearby were minimal; it might be one of the fiercest beasts in the galaxy, the apex predator on its world, but it was still a beast. It surely had no way of disguised itself from the best sensor technology available. If Phasma had not detected it, it must be elsewhere on the ship. He imagined it scurrying through the service ducts and garbage chutes, looking for the victims it had been denied by the plague spreading through the crew.

The more subtle danger the plague itself posed was a separate problem, but there would be time enough to deal with that when he had decided what to do with Lykal's research.

Eventually, he reached the main lab, and used his override codes to open the door. The sight and the stench that confronted him when it opened were disgusting. Here there were many of the encrusted corpses, including that of Lykal himself.

Hux approached the figure that had once been his chief bioweapon researcher. When he'd entered the room, it had looked as though Doctor Lykal had been sat at the lab bench, engrossed in his experiments. But then Hux had realised that he was slumped over the desk, the same as the other corpses they'd found around the ship, the other researchers lying on the floor around him: giant putrid boils and encrusted skin.

He had come into the lab alone, having ordered Phasma to take the squad of stormtroopers with her and cleanse the other areas. As few people as possible should know the details of the research. He had intended to collect up the data and then purge the system. But he couldn't help drawing closer to Lykal's corpse, to see what had happened to the man for himself.

And then, suddenly, Lykal turned to him and spoke.

Hux mastered the autonomic flight response he felt as the disgusting figure opened first its eyes, a sickly yellow, and then its mouth to rasp, "You got it wrong."

"Lykal?"

"Not Ly-kal," he -- it -- said. "Not any more."

Hux pulled his pistol from its holster and levelled it at the figure, aiming directly between its unnatural eyes. "What are you?"

"It took us a while," the figure said. "To learn how to ... What is Ly-kal's word?" It cocked its head, the gesture a grotesque parody of Lykal's mannerisms. "To learn how to infest you. Not like our usual hosts."

Hux swallowed. "Explain."

"You got it wrong," the creature that had once been Lykal said. "It was never the apex predator that was interesting. We are the apex _parasite_."

The sickening understanding dawned in Hux's mind. "Some sort of ... collective intelligence distributed across single-celled organisms?"

"That is what Ly-kal said. Before we took him over. We have learned so much in his mind." The figure stood up, unsteadily, and lurched towards Hux. "The world was ... the world. All that we ever knew. Until you--" In jerking movements, it raised its arm and pointed its entire hand at him. "Until you, Gen-e-ral Hux, took us away. We have learned new concepts. Galaxy. Hyperspace. We will spread. We are spreading now."

The other corpses were stirring now, getting unsteadily to their feet.

"What do you mean? You're confined to this ship."

"We are spreading _on_ this ship. Another new concept from Ly-kal." The figure coughed, absurdly since it clearly wasn't breathing. "An airborne vec-tor."

Hux put his free hand over his mouth and backed away. "Stop it! Stop immediately." He reached the door and hit the control panel with the butt of his pistol, stumbling backwards out of the room as soon as it opened.

The figure carried on stumbling towards him as he worked the door panel, closing and locking it. "From you, Gen-e-ral Hux, we shall learn how to fly--"

The door slammed down just as Phasma rounded the corner. "General, what happened?"

"We're retreating to the docking bay." A knocking noise began as the creatures on the other side of the door started to try to get through. "Immediately, Captain."

"Yes, sir!" She started relaying the orders to the stormtroopers. A moment later, she turned to him, "Sir, several squads are encountering resistance. From the corpses, sir."

"Order them not to engage. Retreat as fast as possible and form up with us." He turned and broke into a jog as they headed for the nearest lift.

Phasma followed, maintaining a respectful position behind her commanding officer, but at the smallest possible distance. "Some of the squads have retrieved flamethrowers from the Implacable's armouries. We could ..."

In other circumstances, Hux would have been praising their initiative. "They must not engage, Captain," he said firmly. "They must minimise exposure. Create a path to escape but do not attempt to fight back."

"Should we call for reinforcements from the _Finalizer_ , sir? A biohazard squad ..."

"Negative," Hux said. He already had a much more drastic solution in mind.

The first pair of stormtroopers met them at the lift. They were being pursued by several shambling figures, former crew members of the research vessel turned into shambling monstrosities by the parasite, but it was the possibility that the parasite was in the very air they were breathing that obsessed Hux. He had been less than a metre away from the thing that had been Lykal. Even though the standard troopers' helmets had inadequate filtering to deal with such a threat, he was wearing none at all.

As they rode down in the lift, he forced himself to remain calm. He was in control. He was in control of the mission, he was in control of himself.

Six more troopers were already waiting for them at the exit on the docking level, using their flamethrowers to repel a large crowd of the parasite figures. Phasma used hand gestures to order them to begin to advance slowly, clearing an area around them to allow them to advance to the docking bay. Hux took out his pistol and began firing at some of the figures, but when the shots barely seemed to slow them down he elected to conserve the weapon's energy reserves.

The progress they made was agonisingly slow. The two stormtroopers who had came with them laid down their own flames behind them as cover. The roar of the flames all around the party made any other sound indistinct, but Hux thought he heard the creatures speaking, as the Lykal revenant had in the lab. Smattered phrases impinged on his consciousness: "General Hux", "how to fly". The superorganism was playing psychological games with him, but he would not fall victim. But, it occurred to him, what if they weren't speaking at all? What if the parasite was already infecting him, multiplying inside him? It was unthinkable, and yet ...

One of the stormtroopers ran out of fuel in his backpack and retreated into the middle of the gaggle alongside Phasma and Hux. Hux knew without having to speak that Phasma would reprimand him later for his waste -- probably an earlier panic reaction when the corpses had first begun to move. He tried to make himself useful by scanning the environment. "I'm reading dozens of them, all converging on our location. And, Captain, there's--" He showed the scan readout to Phasma.

"General, there may be a slight delay in our reaching the assault transport in the docking bay," Phasma said evenly after studying it. "There appears to be a much larger creature within. Perhaps some sort of conglomeration--"

"The predator," Hux said. "The parasite's original host." The best host available on its home planet, but now insignificant compared to how it could spread across the entire galaxy, using the hollowed out shell of the First Order at first, then infecting the New Republic, before the Outer Rim, the Unknown Regions ... Hux shuddered as he wondered whether he was feeling fear or elation at the prospect. Was the parasite taking him over already? He had no way to know that he had even been infected.

"Sir?" Captain Phasma asked.

"We must reach the transport," Hux said. "It is imperative."

Their small cordon of flame had reached the door of the docking bay. As soon as they opened it, the parasite-infected predator would attack.

Phasma tapped two of the stormtroopers on the shoulder and they moved away from laying down flames, forming up on opposite sides of the door. The stormtrooper whose flamethrower had run out of fuel stood directly in the middle without being ordered. He knew that the price for his failure was to offer himself up as their first line of defence. Phasma and Hux stood behind him. Phasma shouldered her cannon.

"Open the door," Phasma said.

The predator creature ran forward, swiping at them with its clawed hands. It was twice as large and twice as ugly as the biggest rancor Hux had ever seen. He could see now that what he had thought from the initial reports he had seen were vicious spikes were really the encrustations of the infection. Phasma levelled the cannon at it and fired, taking a huge chunk out of its left shoulder. Hux and the three stormtroopers poured blaster shots onto its hide but to little effect. The creature picked up the lead stormtrooper and flung him high into the air behind it. He landed with a sickening crunch on the top of the assault transport they were trying to reach.

Hux ducked to one side as Phasma fired again. "Through the door!" she shouted. "Through! Through!" The stormtroopers all ran through, the ones who had still been repelling the former crew members switching to their other weapons as soon as the door closed behind them.

Hux looked around him. The creature was magnificent. Lykal's stratagem had been a sound one: find a way to implant cybernetic controls and it would be a formidable front line warrior, an asset to any assault squad or something that could be dropped from orbit onto a Resistance base or an unsuspecting New Republic colony world to wreak havoc. But, he realised now, it had always been under the control of a guiding intelligence.

How did he know that with such certainty? Was the same about to be true of him? Or was he simply becoming paranoid about ideas that would have occurred to him perfectly naturally?

He watched admiringly as Phasma continued to fire, and directed her squad's tactics in avoiding the monster's blows. But he could see that breaking past it to the assault transport was looking increasingly unlikely.

Breaking off to the side, on the other hand ... He ran up to the TIE fighter docking stations and jumped inside. There was no time to suit up, nor to initiate a proper launch sequence. But he could aim and fire the laser cannons. He swung the fighter's weapons around and added their powerful blasts to those of the troopers. One stray shot caught a trooper who was behind the creature from his point of view, but he readjusted and focused his fire, blasting the creature's legs away from underneath it.

The predator collapsed to the floor, still lashing out with its arms. Phasma and the remaining troopers fired again and again until they were still. Hux extricated himself from the TIE fighter and met them on the loading ramp of the assault transport they had arrived from the _Finalizer_ on board.

"Launch immediately," he said to Phasma as she sat down at the controls. The stormtroopers had already grabbed hold of the bulkheads in anticipation of a sudden jolt of acceleration. Hux held on firmly to the back of Phasma's seat.

The ramp was still lifting up as they flew towards the force field. Glancing behind, Hux could see that the horde of infected crew members had made its way through the door to the docking bay. Some had picked up energy weapons and were taking pot shots at them, but it was too late. They were safely away.

Or were they already infected? Unable to avoid their grisly eventual fate?

As they flew through the forcefield, Hux moved over to the seat beside Phasma and punched the communications panel. " _Finalizer_ , come in."

" _Finalizer_ standing by. We have you on visual exiting the _Implacable_."

"I want that ship blown to atoms as soon as we're clear of the blast radius. _To atoms_ , do you hear? _Nothing_ must survive. Not a single cell."

"Acknowledged, General."

"And have a quarantine unit set up in the aft docking bay," Hux said.

"Sorry, General, please could you confirm?"

"Full biohazard precautions," Hux said. "Maximum strength force fields. Nothing to enter or leave until we have been given the all clear."

"Acknowledged, General." There was a crackle of static. "Weapons confirm they have a firing solution, sir. Please brace for a shock wave."

"Fire when ready," Hux said. He tapped the panel to access the feed from the transport's relatively crude rear-facing sensors. He watched with satisfaction as a hail of torpedoes and missiles converged on the ship, the explosion a blossoming flower of flame. The Finalizer's starboard quadlasers raked over the debris to destroy it utterly, carefully avoiding hitting their transport as it flew back through the fire.

It was a great pity, Hux reflected. A perfectly serviceable ship -- a refurbished Star Destroyer from the old Empire, no less -- and its crew, lost. Along with several of his elite stormtroopers. And the possibilities -- oh, the possibilities if the project had worked out as they hoped. He could not find it in him to blame himself for what had happened; the promise of Lykal's scheme had been more than worth pursuing. He would admit to a twinge of regret that they had not realised about the parasite sooner; it in itself could have been a formidable weapon, used correctly.

"Approaching the _Finalizer_ , General."

"Have the men take off their helmets," Hux said. It pained him to give such an order; it went against all his instincts, all his conviction that these troops were as good as clones. Seeing each one's individuality inevitably meant seeing their flaws as well. Microscopic they might be, after nearly two decades of training, but still present.

"But, sir, they are on duty."

"We must inspect them for signs of infection," Hux said. "Any showing obvious infestation will be ejected into space before we board."

"Yes, sir." Phasma hesitated. "Shall I remove my own as well?"

"Negative," Hux said. It wouldn't do to undermine her authority in such a way. "We can be checked later."

"Remove your helmets, men," Phasma said.

They did so and Hux and Phasma inspected them, like a parody of a parade. One was scratching at his neck involuntarily; the very fact that he had broken away from the attention pose was evidence enough, but Hux demanded that he remove his armour. There at the top of his back was a large boil.

Phasma nodded to the two men standing either side of him. "Dispose of him." They picked him up by each arm and took him to the back of the ship. One palmed the door control as the others all hung on against the rush of exiting air.

"No, no, you can't do this! You can't do this!"

"The parasite already had control of him," Hux said as the door closed again and the air restabilised.

_But does it have control of me?_

* * *

Hux could feel his nostrils flaring involuntarily as Kylo Ren stood opposite him on the other side of the quarantine field. He had already released Phasma and the rest of the squad, declaring them uninfected after holding his hand in front of them for a few seconds. Stuck in quarantine, Hux had been in no position to prevent him becoming involved in the aftermath. And the medics had had precious little to go on to determine whether they were infected or not, all Dr Lykal's discoveries having been blasted to smithereens at his command.

Hux was given to understand that Lord Ren's displeasure at being kept waiting by the _Finalizer_ had been considerable. But that storm had passed and now the man who stood before him was preternaturally calm, the breathing amplified by his mask regular, even, and all too easy to interpret in the most pessimistic light.

Hux never normally allowed himself to give into doubt. He was proud of his self-knowledge, of the utter devotion to the cause and the skills he brought to bear in its service that the Supreme Leader had recognised in promoting him so young. But since returning from the _Implacable_ he had been unable to stop the voices in his mind that called everything into question. Had the project been hopelessly flawed, or a valid avenue of research complicated by a factor unpredictable in advance? Was the part of him that wanted to believe the latter was true the real him, or the way his mind was interpreting the parasite slowly taking over and exulting in the possibility of having the resources of the First Order at its command to facilitate its spread?

Eventually, Hux could stand Ren's wordlessness no longer. "Well, Ren, am I clear as well?"

Ren did not reply directly. Instead he turned to Phasma and said, "Leave us."

"My Lord," Phasma acknowledged, bowing briefly before leading the troops away.

Once they were alone, Hux expected Ren to remove his helmet, but he made no move to do so.

"You were foolish."

"Mind your tone, Kylo Ren," Hux said, relying on the patterns set by years of rivalry to fight back against the near-overwhelming urge to beg for the news, even if it was the worst. "Supreme Leader Snoke approved this project personally."

"All your vaunted weapons projects are distractions," Kylo Ren said. "It is only the Force that matters in the end. And it is only the Force that can save you now."

Hux felt himself staggering backwards, regained control of his body in time to make it only a small half-step. "Then..." He swallowed thickly. "I am infected?"

"I should leave you and watch what happens. Watch you lose control of yourself until you are nothing but a mindless, ranting husk." Ren chuckled, the sound distorted by his mask into a hideous rasp. "I wonder if anyone would notice the difference."

"Ren--"

"I can save you," he said. "With the power of the Force, I can burn these creatures from your blood." Ren stepped closer to the forcefield. "I won't even make you beg."

"I--"

"Understand this: I choose to do this only because it will be marginally more entertaining to watch you explain your failure to Supreme Leader Snoke than to watch you die."

"Or because you do not want to face the Supreme Leader's wrath, were he to discover you had been in a position to save me, and failed to do so."

"Do not tempt me to find out exactly how little the Supreme Leader values you," Ren said. But still, he reached his hand out towards Hux, until it was almost touching the forcefield.

What happened next defied Hux's expectations. From Ren's description of burning the infection out, he had anticipating coruscating pain throughout his entire being. But the experience was closer to being bathed in light so bright that it left no possibility of shadow anywhere. He felt better than he had in years: not only was the parasite gone -- somehow he knew that with certainty -- but his thinking was clearer, niggling aches like the one in the small of his back was gone. There was almost a spring in his step.

Ren, however, did seem to have suffered for the experience. He was crouched on the ground, head bowed, hands clutching on to his helmet. Hux thought for a moment that he was going to remove it but then he rose, pronounced "It is done" and walked away.

A few moments later, Phasma returned and released the quarantine forcefield.

"Thank you, Captain," Hux said as he straightened his uniform.

"Are you well, General?"

"Quite well," Hux said. "Never better, in fact."

Phasma stood awaiting his next order, but he had the disquieting feeling that behind her mask she was looking at him differently than she had. Not that there was any real way to tell.

"As you were, Captain," he said.

Phasma saluted and fell into step behind him as he headed back to his command.


End file.
